Kudos to Viking Air & Advise From Others

[SM77]

Yesterday was the first time since we traveled in 2019 to request flights through Viking Air for our upcoming 2023 Cities of Light Viking River Cruise(yes, I know this is the Ocean board but the information is relevant).  I want to thank everyone on this board who posted their tips in working w/ Viking Air in this new era.  I did not have the direct number so I went through the regular Viking phone number.  The agent was trying to discourage me from talking to Viking Air but I was insistent and he transferred me.  He did give me the direct number for Viking Air -1-877-523-0580 - I did book my travel through a travel agent and in the past, she would do a three way conference call or get permission for the Viking Air dept to talk to me directly.  Wow, the Viking Air person, Alem, was so nice and patient.  It didn't matter that I had booked my cruise through a travel agent.  I was able to get my first choice outbound, United Dulles to Brussels, Brussels to Prague.  I was limited in picking flights since I am trying premium economy, United doesn't seem to have many flights w/ premium economy seats.  I do have a question for folks, do you think 2 hours 15 minutes is sufficient connecting time in Brussels at 7:15 AM?  And in booking the return flight, United non-stop from Paris to Dulles, Alem informed me that Viking had already reserved seats for us!  We are not ticketed yet, but I was able to go ahead and pick our seats on the Dulles to Brussel flight through United's website.  Final payment is the end of September so I will ticket the reservations after that.  Of course, Alem did caution me about the airlines canceling flights and changing reservations but I told him that I am prepared for that.  We have had our business seat assignments changed at the airport without United trying to make accommodations to sit us together.  So thanks to everyone for your advise!  We feel much more excited about being able to do this cruise.  It's been such a long time.

[FlyerTalker]

15 minutes ago, SM77 said:

 Of course, Alem did caution me about the airlines canceling flights and changing reservations but I told him that I am prepared for that. 

 

Did he also caution you about the cruiseline changing reservations as well?

[SM77]

34 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Did he also caution you about the cruiseline changing reservations as well?

Yes, both did. 

[FlyerTalker]

3 hours ago, SM77 said:

Yes, both did. 

 

I mean...did he say "even if the airline keeps the same schedule, we (the cruiseline) can change your reservation at any time before you are ticketed, all at our discretion."?

[SM77]

21 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

I mean...did he say "even if the airline keeps the same schedule, we (the cruiseline) can change your reservation at any time before you are ticketed, all at our discretion."?

They did not say that specifically but I already knew that from experience.  That's why once you have decided on your flights, one should go ahead and ticket the reservations.  I'm still looking for any feedback on whether 2 hours 15 minutes is sufficient for connection time in Brussels at 7:15 AM.  I still need to do a little research but I know that there is a much later flight to Prague from Brussels if we missed that connection.  I'm inclined to think that we may get into Brussels sooner heading from the US.  However we have also experienced changes to ticketed reservations from the airlines so I need to be more tolerate traveling these days.

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, SM77 said:

They did not say that specifically but I already knew that from experience.

 

That's what I was getting at.  They will give you the warnings about what the airline might do, but they are mum about how THEY can change you around.  So the agent "cautioning you" left out a big chunk.

 

1 hour ago, SM77 said:

I'm still looking for any feedback on whether 2 hours 15 minutes is sufficient for connection time in Brussels at 7:15 AM.

 

That should be more than sufficient, providing you don't have significant delays in your departure.

 

1 hour ago, SM77 said:

I'm inclined to think that we may get into Brussels sooner heading from the US. 

 

And why would you think that?

 

 

[SM77]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

 

 

And why would you think that?

 

 

Airlines give themselves plenty of time for on time arrivals and I'm hoping for some tailwinds.

 

Thanks for providing your thoughts that 2 hours 15 minutes should be sufficient time to make our connecting flight. 

 

We have had great experiences working w/ Viking Air on all the flights that we have booked through them.  In fact, they worked really well for us when AA canceled our flights back to the States from Hong Kong to Dulles a couple of days before flying home & we were in Bali.  AA basically told us to figure it out w/ our travel agent and left us hanging.  Viking Air got us on a much better non-stop flight from Hong Kong to Dulles on Cathay Pacific instead of the two flights that we had w/ AA.   

 

The pricing for the premium economy were too good to pass up since we got free economy air included in our cruise.  But given our experience having paid independently for flights for one of our cruises that was canceled during the pandemic, we had to wait until United officially canceled the flight to get our money back.  We just prefer Viking handling it all.  It has worked well for us.  

[FlyerTalker]

16 minutes ago, SM77 said:

We have had great experiences working w/ Viking Air on all the flights that we have booked through them.  In fact, they worked really well for us when AA canceled our flights back to the States from Hong Kong to Dulles a couple of days before flying home & we were in Bali.  AA basically told us to figure it out w/ our travel agent and left us hanging. 

 

Well, given that you bought your tickets through Viking, AA was probably right to do this.  Bulk tickets often have special restrictions, including that any modifications have be done through the sales channel that provided the ticket.  So don't go blaming AA for leaving you "hanging" -- they were likely following the rules of the ticket.

[SM77]

2 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Well, given that you bought your tickets through Viking, AA was probably right to do this.  Bulk tickets often have special restrictions, including that any modifications have be done through the sales channel that provided the ticket.  So don't go blaming AA for leaving you "hanging" -- they were likely following the rules of the ticket.

Well, what you have said may be absolutely correct but it would have been nice to get something more that an email stating the flights are canceled and work with your travel agent when we were 15 hours time difference and just a couple of days before the canceled flights were suppose to occur.  I guess it's better than showing up at the airport and finding out that the flights were canceled.  

[sundaycreek]

16 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Well, given that you bought your tickets through Viking, AA was probably right to do this.  Bulk tickets often have special restrictions, including that any modifications have be done through the sales channel that provided the ticket.  So don't go blaming AA for leaving you "hanging" -- they were likely following the rules of the ticket.

We were very grateful for Viking’s assistance in getting us home from Buenos Aires when Covid first hit in March 2020.  Even though we had not used Viking Air for our flights, they took care of everything for us.

[LindaS272]

36 minutes ago, sundaycreek said:

We were very grateful for Viking’s assistance in getting us home from Buenos Aires when Covid first hit in March 2020.  Even though we had not used Viking Air for our flights, they took care of everything for us.

We were there too and they went above and beyond.

[FetaCheese]

I've had my flights and seats since June, booked with V Air Plus.  Didn't notice when it occurred, but MVJ doesn't have option to change anything...seats, class, flights.  Those options are have been removed.

 

Had chat with V agent re: issue.  Could not tell me  why.  Referred me to V air desk.  

 

Anyone else have MVJ remove air change options ?

[SM77]

7 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

I've had my flights and seats since June, booked with V Air Plus.  Didn't notice when it occurred, but MVJ doesn't have option to change anything...seats, class, flights.  Those options are have been removed.

 

Had chat with V agent re: issue.  Could not tell me  why.  Referred me to V air desk.  

 

Anyone else have MVJ remove air change options ?

I just checked MVJ and the buttons to change seats, upgrade or change flights are still there.

[keokukjoe]

8 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

I've had my flights and seats since June, booked with V Air Plus.  Didn't notice when it occurred, but MVJ doesn't have option to change anything...seats, class, flights.  Those options are have been removed.

 

Had chat with V agent re: issue.  Could not tell me  why.  Referred me to V air desk.  

 

Anyone else have MVJ remove air change options ?

The change options were removed when we were ticketed. The e-ticket numbers are on MVJ air. I bet that you are now ticketed.

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by keokukjoe

[FetaCheese]

1 hour ago, keokukjoe said:

The change options were removed when we were ticketed. The e-ticket numbers are on MVJ air. I bet that you are now ticketed.

 

Just checked, no ticket #s, and no change options.  I'm happy with flights, but still want to know what happened.

 

Will call air plus desk today.

[keokukjoe]

11 minutes ago, FetaCheese said:

Just checked, no ticket #s, and no change options.  I'm happy with flights, but still want to know what happened.

 

Will call air plus desk today.

On the Air Booking page on MVJ, scroll down below the flight specifics and click on the "flight details & baggage fees" (which has a grey background). Then scroll down in the grey drop-down and at the bottom,  the e-ticket  numbers are shown . See if that helps. 

 

[FetaCheese]

20 minutes ago, keokukjoe said:

On the Air Booking page on MVJ, scroll down below the flight specifics and click on the "flight details & baggage fees" (which has a grey background). Then scroll down in the grey drop-down and at the bottom,  the e-ticket  numbers are shown . See if that helps. 

 

Thanks for suggestion.  I checked as you said, on mobile and desktop, and no ticket #s.

[keokukjoe]

1 minute ago, FetaCheese said:

Thanks for suggestion.  I checked as you said, on mobile and desktop, and no ticket #s.

Very strange. Please let me know what AIr Plus says. I still think they ticketed you guys. Perhaps that is the reason why you couldn't make changes on your own. 

[FetaCheese]

1 hour ago, keokukjoe said:

Very strange. Please let me know what AIr Plus says. I still think they ticketed you guys. Perhaps that is the reason why you couldn't make changes on your own. 

Ok, will do.

[FetaCheese]

Joe, I called V air plus desk today re: issue.  Rep didn't understand why.  Referred it to supervisor, who would work on issue.

 

Checked back late in day, and air tab said in red banner:  flights were being updated, check back later.  No flights listed, but has the 3 greyed out change options, so they must still be working on resolving problem.

 

Called back end of day to ask whether flights were still reserved.  Yes, rep read to me my confirmed flights.  He checked with supervisor, who said to check back in n 5 to 7 hours.

 

Just checked again at home now.  Still updating.

 

Will let you know.

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by FetaCheese
Clarity

[keokukjoe]

1 hour ago, FetaCheese said:

Joe, I called V air plus desk today re: issue.  Rep didn't understand why.  Referred it to supervisor, who would work on issue.

 

Checked back late in day, and air tab said in red banner:  flights were being updated, check back later.  No flights listed, but has the 3 greyed out change options, so they must still be working on resolving problem.

 

Called back end of day to ask whether flights were still reserved.  Yes, rep read to me my confirmed flights.  He checked with supervisor, who said to check back in n 5 to 7 hours.

 

Just checked again at home now.  Still updating.

 

Will let you know.

 

Oh dear. Did you per chance check the airline's websites to confirm that you are still on your chosen flights??

My fear is that until ticketing, Viking can change your flights and tell you afterwards. After Viking Air Plus straightens out whatever is going on, l would tell them to issue the e-ticket. Let us know what you find out.

[FetaCheese]

15 minutes ago, keokukjoe said:

Oh dear. Did you per chance check the airline's websites to confirm that you are still on your chosen flights??

My fear is that until ticketing, Viking can change your flights and tell you afterwards. After Viking Air Plus straightens out whatever is going on, l would tell them to issue the e-ticket. Let us know what you find out.

Yes, UA still has my res, both same UA outbound and same AA return.  AA app has frequent problems, and can't find res.

 

MVJ not updated yet, but not too worried.

Edited September 9, 2022 by FetaCheese

[FetaCheese]

Update: yesterday morning, still no flights on MVJ.  Checked back later in day, entire booking missing, account was locked.

 

Called Air Plus, wanted a manager. Rep had me try dif browser, clear cache, close browser, login again. All wasted time, still could not find my booking.  

 

Again, asked for mgr. Rep tried to find available mgr.  No go.  Rep put me on hold to consult with supervisor.  Came back and said should be fixed in 24-48 hours, and I would receive a call from V.

 

Looked this a.m.  Booking is back, but still no flights.  Rep sent me flight itin to reassure me that I still had them.

 

Also received another email inv. pkg.

 

 

(I sign out of MVJ each time, in case that would matter).

 

Just logged in now.  Still no flight info.

 

Forgot to mention, on 2nd call, rep admitted they had some problems with MVJ.

[FlyerTalker]

49 minutes ago, FetaCheese said:

Looked this a.m.  Booking is back, but still no flights.  Rep sent me flight itin to reassure me that I still had them.

 

To be blunt -- you have bupkis.

 

You have a placeholder.  Until you have a ticket number, you are just a "maybe".  Even if AA and/or UA show a "reservation".

 

 

[keokukjoe]

22 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

Looked this a.m.  Booking is back, but still no flights.  Rep sent me flight itin to reassure me that I still had them.

 

22 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

To be blunt -- you have bupkis.

 

You have a placeholder.  Until you have a ticket number, you are just a "maybe".  Even if AA and/or UA show a "reservation".

 

 

I agree. Call Air Plus NOW and insist on getting your reservation e-ticketed.